How to Do a Panorama Shot Manually ~ Enhance Photography Skill

You no longer have to miss out on the ideal shot when a sweeping landscape extends beyond your camera's viewfinder. Avoid adding inadequate or partial images to your vacation photo albums and instead capture the entire photograph each time. Impress your family and friends by manually executing a panorama shot using your digital camera and a few other pieces of basic photography.

Instructions

Find a spot free of obstructions to shoot the panorama. Avoid crowded areas as people can walk into the frame during one of the shots. Ensure the location is also clear of anything that will change during the process of taking each image, such as flying birds or flags. You want each image to appear as though it was taken at exactly the same time.

Check the ground, and remove any rocks or other items.

Prepare your tripod by sliding out the legs, ensuring they are even, and placing the tripod on the cleared, flat surface.

Attach the camera securely to the tripod. Make sure there is enough give, though, so that you can smoothly turn the camera.

Look through the viewfinder to ensure the shot is correctly lined up. Adjust the tripod height and camera angle as needed.

Starting with one side of the panoramic view, take your first image. Press the shutter release button carefully, or use a remote to avoid shaking the camera.

Turn the camera to encompass the next section of the panorama. Reference the first image as needed to make sure there is no overlap between the images.

Continue taking photos until you have an image for each section of the desired panorama. When taking these images, do not move the camera other than shifting from one side to the other to encompass a different portion of the panorama. Do not change the tilt of the camera or remove it from the tripod, and do not adjust the height of the tripod legs.

Review the photos before leaving the location. Retake any images that do not line up with the others. Repeat as many times as needed to avoid complications during the editing process. Imperfectly aligned images will be glaringly obvious in the final product.

Open the final set of images in your photo-editing program.

Edit the images as desired including adjusting contrast, exposure and saturation, but edit each photo to exactly the same levels. Any difference will show up in the final panorama image, so be careful. Avoid cropping the image but, if cropping is necessary, ensure each image is the same size, including width, length and resolution.

Multiply the amount of pictures by the width of one image to get the full size of the panorama shot.

Create a new file in your photo-editing program. Adjust the size of the new file to the calculated panorama size. If you are using Adobe Photoshop, select "Canvas Size" from the "Image" menu, and change the values in the "Width" and "Height" fields.

Copy each image, and paste into the new file. You will be moving each image around in the new file, so make sure each image is pasted as a different layer. You may have to manually insert a new layer before pasting, depending on what program you use, but if you are using Photoshop, just type the shortcut "Control" plus "V" in Windows or "Command" plus "V" on a Mac to automatically paste the images as individual layers.

Move the image layers so they are in the correct order from left to right. Make slight adjustments to ensure they are properly aligned, as needed. Then, save your completed panorama shot.